He, too, gets behind the chair, while Cherubino, screened by Susanna’s skirts, ensconces himself in the seat, and finds cover under one of the Countess’s gowns which Susanna hurriedly throws over him.  Don Basilio comes in search of the Count, but promptly begins his pleas in behalf of his master.  Receiving nothing but indignant rejoinders, he twits Susanna with loving the lad, and more than intimates that Cherubino is in love with the Countess.  Why else does he devour her with his eyes when serving her at table?  And had he not composed a canzonetta for her?  Far be it from him, however, to add a word to what “everybody says.”  “Everybody says what?” demands the Count, discovering himself.  A trio follows ("Cosa sento!”) The Count, though in a rage, preserves a dignified behavior and orders the instant dismissal of the page from the palace.  Susanna is overwhelmed with confusion, and plainly betrays her agitation.  She swoons, and her companions are about to place her in the arm-chair when she realizes a danger and recovers consciousness.  Don Basilio cringes before the Count, but is maliciously delighted at the turn which affairs have taken.

The Count is stern.  Cherubino had once before incurred his displeasure by poaching in his preserves.  He had visited Barbarina, the pretty daughter of his gardener, and found the door bolted.  The maid appeared confused, and he, seeking an explanation, drew the cover from the table and found the page hiding under.  He illustrates his action by lifting the gown thrown over the chair, and there is the page again!  This, then, is the reason of Susanna’s seeming prudery—­the page, her lover!  He accuses Susanna, who asserts her innocence, and truthfully says that Cherubino had come to ask her to procure the Countess’s intercession in his behalf, when his entrance had thrown them both into such confusion that Cherubino had concealed himself.  Where?  Behind the arm-chair.  But the Count himself had hidden there.  True, but a moment before the page had slipped around and into the chair.  Then he had heard all that the Count had said to Susanna?  Cherubino says he had tried his best not to overhear anything.  Figaro is sent for and enters with the villagers, who hymn the virtues of their lord.  To the Count’s question as to the meaning of the demonstration, Figaro explains that it is an expression of their gratitude for the Count’s surrender of seignorial rights, and that his subjects wish him to celebrate the occasion by bestowing the hand of Susanna on Figaro at once and himself placing the bridal veil upon her brow.  The Count sees through Figaro’s trick, but believing it will be frustrated by Marcellina’s appeal, he promises to honor the bride, as requested, in due season.  Cherubino has begged for the Count’s forgiveness, and Susanna has urged his youth in extenuation of his fault.  Reminded that the lad knows of his pursuit of Susanna, the Count modifies his sentence of dismissal from his service to banishment to Seville as an officer in his regiment.  Figaro playfully inducts him into the new existence.